Jennifer: I say uhGUS'tin, for the saint; but AUG'usteen for the city in Florida. One of the parishes in my home town was St. Augustine's, and everyone I knew pronounced it as I do -- including the possessive at the end. AuGUStin's. Short for St. Augustine's parish, I suppose. And often we left off the "St."
The diocese cathedral was Our Lady of Lourdes, which we usually called simply "Lord's." Language is as vibrant as religion is. Both live!
And I thank you, Jacqueline. I am an agnostic rather than an atheist; otherwise I entirely agree. Religion has never ceased to interest me, and one day I'll write more about it generically rather than specifically. For now, as you suggest, far from being meaningless, religion provides meaning, especially in the face of suffering. It is most fundamentally a community of meaning.
I am glad you asked how we pronounce the name of the Bishop of Hippo. My undergraduate professors, non-Catholics, pronounced the name as AUG’usteen. Some of my Catholic students would pronounce it uhGUS’tin. I didn't know so I would follow the lead of whoever was speaking. One day, I decided to listen to a speech by the Pope and he pronounced it AUG'usteen so that is my default. However, if someone pronounces it the other way, then I say AUG’usteen or AUG’usteen and simply acknowledge that different people pronounce it differently. I would love to know what you think about it.
Because I am reading The Master and the Emissary, by Iain McGilchrist, I read much of these ponderings on being Catholic, sometimes/always/never, through the perspective of right and left hemisphere comparisons. I think we err when we dismiss religion as meaningless, and I say that as a thoroughgoing atheist. I think we also err when we justify unexamined prejudices by resorting to religion as the repository of conscience and truth. Thank you for supplying nourishment for both sides of my brain today.
Jennifer: I say uhGUS'tin, for the saint; but AUG'usteen for the city in Florida. One of the parishes in my home town was St. Augustine's, and everyone I knew pronounced it as I do -- including the possessive at the end. AuGUStin's. Short for St. Augustine's parish, I suppose. And often we left off the "St."
The diocese cathedral was Our Lady of Lourdes, which we usually called simply "Lord's." Language is as vibrant as religion is. Both live!
And I thank you, Jacqueline. I am an agnostic rather than an atheist; otherwise I entirely agree. Religion has never ceased to interest me, and one day I'll write more about it generically rather than specifically. For now, as you suggest, far from being meaningless, religion provides meaning, especially in the face of suffering. It is most fundamentally a community of meaning.
Thanks for the book recommendation.
I am glad you asked how we pronounce the name of the Bishop of Hippo. My undergraduate professors, non-Catholics, pronounced the name as AUG’usteen. Some of my Catholic students would pronounce it uhGUS’tin. I didn't know so I would follow the lead of whoever was speaking. One day, I decided to listen to a speech by the Pope and he pronounced it AUG'usteen so that is my default. However, if someone pronounces it the other way, then I say AUG’usteen or AUG’usteen and simply acknowledge that different people pronounce it differently. I would love to know what you think about it.
Because I am reading The Master and the Emissary, by Iain McGilchrist, I read much of these ponderings on being Catholic, sometimes/always/never, through the perspective of right and left hemisphere comparisons. I think we err when we dismiss religion as meaningless, and I say that as a thoroughgoing atheist. I think we also err when we justify unexamined prejudices by resorting to religion as the repository of conscience and truth. Thank you for supplying nourishment for both sides of my brain today.